Magis

Dr Annette Pedersen - Magis & Ignatius Centre Coordinator

On Monday this week I was fortunate to be able to accompany a small group of Years 10 and 11 students to the Gifted and Talented student conference at St Hilda's Anglican School for Girls. Senior students from more than 20 schools were challenged by complex ideas and discussion. Two of our students wrote the following about their experience;

"Monday was a fantastic opportunity for actually stopping to think about how our society operates. As our society is being more open and free, the lecture on Meta Data was an interesting opportunity to reflect on how willing we are to share our personal details with anyone and how easy it can be accessed and whether this contributed to the diminishing of our individuality (the main focus of the day). My favourite lecture would have to be the "Thinking about Thinking" one. I found it somewhat empowering learning how our brain functions and how we can use this to build our self-confidence and how to focus on our goals and objectives and to try to stay in the present moment instead of being caught up in the past and what lies ahead in the future. One particularly important thing I learnt during that lecture was how important it is to like yourself and know it's not important what other people say, but it's what you say to yourself. The Sexual Ethics lecture provided an interesting framework for an otherwise taboo topic that is usually avoided in the classroom scene. Overall, I am very thankful for being able to participate in such an interesting day with other likeminded people and being able to share and discuss our thoughts."Sophie Minissale

"Thank you for taking us to the event today, it was really enjoyable. It was very interesting to be exposed to different concepts and methods of thought that we don't often encounter in our day to day lives. It was also motivating to see how many other 'gifted and talented' students there are at other schools. I am glad I took the time to be part of the day."Connor Jenkins

Both Connor and Sophie are in the College Magis Debating team. I am currently organising for the team to travel to St Aloysius' College in Sydney in July. They will participate in the Eleventh Annual Jesuit Debating Carnival. The Carnival takes place over two days and involves teams from Jesuit secondary schools around Australia. It is a brilliant opportunity for our students to meet their peers from the Ignatian tradition. It goes without saying that the topics debated all have a strong social justice theme and the students are passionate and articulate in their grappling with tough questions.

Library

The Library is busy at the moment getting all our systems in order before moving over to a new library management system. As part of a stocktake we are following up on all overdue items. It is important that we "clean up" all our records before migrating data.

As students prepare for examinations the Library is open until 7pm on Tuesday and Thursday for Year 12 students. Assistance with maths and science is available on Tuesday from 5pm for Year 12 students. I can help all students with their humanities subjects either before school, at lunch time or after school.

The Library has a display of new fiction for lower secondary students. There is also a selection of recommended reading for these students. Students are welcome to browse and borrow before school, at lunch time and after school.